


From the shards

by Babushka_Hi_Hi



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alpha Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bottom Erwin Smith, Bottom Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Drama, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Omega Erwin Smith, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 17:46:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16791733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babushka_Hi_Hi/pseuds/Babushka_Hi_Hi
Summary: — This is nonsense, omega. You'll die in your first mission, take pity on your parents.Erwin stepped closer to the table and pointed at the bottom line of his dossier.— I don't have parents. I have never known my mother, my father was repressed and executed, I was sterilised.





	From the shards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skunsa](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=skunsa).
  * A translation of [Из осколков](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4551552) by [Babushka_Hi_Hi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babushka_Hi_Hi/pseuds/Babushka_Hi_Hi). 



> Translation by [Aileine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aileine).  
> Translation beta reading by [Lustfulcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lustfulcat).  
> Illustration by dear [Aileine](http://eroleine.tumblr.com/post/180656136390)  
>   
> [Full](https://babushkahihi.tumblr.com/post/180664557593/eroleine-levi-pressed-his-kiss-warmed-lips-hot)

1.

A spring downpour roared outside the office window.

Erwin stood at attention in front of Commander Keith Shadis' table, rain shadows trickled down the commander's tired face.

— You're an omega? — Shadis was looking through Erwin Smith's personal file thoughtfully. — Hm... yes, I see, I see... A chemically sterilised omega. Asexual, no scent. Fit for military service at the alpha operational unit.

Shadis winced and looked at Erwin.

— The doctor from the medical commission has a terrible handwriting, he sent me the list of the cremated bodies from the morgue the other day, I could barely read it.

He got silent, scratched at the stubble on his cheek and stared out the window absently.

— I graduated from the Cadet Corps with honours, — Erwin said quietly. — Got recommendations for enrolling at the Higher Military Command School.

— I know, I know, — Shadis waved his hand. — Then maybe you better join the strategists? You'll be working at the headquarters with the betas, I can make you a commanding officer right now. Managing the communications, dealing with the logistics and... stuff.

He waved his hand again, this seemed to substitute the words that had escaped his memory, and added:

— In the previous expedition outside the Wall the titans gobbled up almost all our officers. And an omega commander is better than no commander at all.

From his confident calm voice and low timbre Erwin realised that Shadis was using his alpha domination. Any omega would feel safe and relaxed, obeying the alpha's will, letting him make all the important decisions. Any omega, but not Erwin. Such tricks have never worked on him.

— I can coordinate the communication and logistic officers, — he said softly, — but during the expedition I want to be with the alphas, because eventually I am going to command the operational units and I must have a clear idea of what happens at the battlefront.

Shadis sighed and looked at him gently and condescendingly.

— This is nonsense, omega. You'll die in your first mission, take pity on your parents.

Erwin stepped closer to the table and pointed at the bottom line of his dossier.

— I don't have parents. I have never known my mother, my father was repressed and executed, I was sterilised.

2.

Erwin got to the battlefront like he had wanted.

And then, after having returned from the expedition wounded, lying on the hospital bed, he for the first time realised what loneliness was. When your true alpha won't find you by the smell because you don't smell like anything — an infertile omega crippled by medics. And you will always be alone face to face with your pain and fear. Erwin used to forbid himself from thinking about this, but now, while he was drugged with opium, his emotions overflowed him like cold muddy water.

In his delirium he was almost weeping, his eyes burning. He shut them tightly until white circles appeared under his lids.

Someone came up silently to his bed, lay a cold hard palm upon his burning forehead. He felt the scent of forest herbs and rich black tea.

— Hush, omega. Everything will be alright.

Erwin fell into a deep slumber, and after a whole day of sleep, when he came to his senses, he could smell a barely noticeable sweet aroma, like that of cinnamon. He had attained a faint omega scent.

Everything had changed and gotten more complicated since then.

3.

That evening yet another downpour stormed outside.

The candle cast a faint light around the utility room near the laundry, heat rising from the furnace up to the low ceiling. Cold breezes travelled along the stone floor.

The boiled water was cooling down rapidly, moist vapour floating above the wooden basin. Erwin was washing energetically and violently, rubbing his skin raw and pink with a greyish bar of soap that smelled foully of tar. He rinsed his hair with a pungent herbal decoction, scrubbed his palms with gauze soaked in alcohol. This way Erwin was suppressing, killing his scent — a barely perceptible omega aroma. The last thing he needed was for someone to notice it and report to the authorities. He, Erwin, a dissident's son, had been sterilised as a kid — no use giving birth to more traitors. He would be hospitalized again and forced to take medications better suited to poison rats.

If Erwin ever shared a bed with someone it was with quiet and tidy betas — their company was calming, his soul rested and his body relaxed. All sexual encounters were but shadows on muddy water. Or plain physiology, easily tricked with herbal decoctions and bitter powders from the pharmacy.

Erwin didn't want an alpha.

Erwin thoroughly dried his hair with a towel, put on clean clothes and fetched the razor. He shaved the blond prickly stubble off his cheeks, squinting, trying to see his reflection in the dimly lit mirror. And twitched, cut himself, when he heard a muffled howling shout from the outside. Erwin tossed the razor away.

As Erwin was tugging his boots on, the shout came again, followed by a terrible cawing cough. The voices sounded loud and clear — dirty swears. Throwing his uniform jacket on, Erwin ran out right under the icy rain, so cold it took his breath away.

In the narrow passage between the laundry and the warehouse several alphas were fighting, judging by the pungent, tarry smell of their sweat coming through the downpour. Three soldiers, tightly interlocked, were rolling around the wet grass. With their soaked capes clinging to their bodies they looked like a formless greyish green mass. Two large alphas tried pinning the third one to the ground with the whole weight of their bulks, but he turned and slipped out, wickedly kicked the closer opponent in his face, and was about to punch him too for good measure, finish breaking his nose.

— Stand down! — Erwin barked over the noise of the rain. He grabbed that nimble alpha from behind, pressed him tightly to himself and dragged him away with difficulty. The alpha was strong but surprisingly small, about Erwin's shoulder height. He barely struggled, twitched once and then froze in Erwin's arms, breathing rapidly. And he didn't smell of anything other than mint, tea and fresh blood.

— So you're a beta? — Erwin asked quietly. He looked severely at the alphas who had scrambled up into standing positions and were trying to straighten themselves. — How could you attack a beta? Your names, ranks, squads?

— Construction batallion, squad six, privates, — they mumbled and then told their names louder and more confidently. One of them had blood trickling out of his nose, the other suffered a swelling eye.

— How could you even raise a hand against a beta? — Erwin requested gloomly, though he was starting to suspect it wasn't all that simple.

— I'm an alpha, — the one whom Erwin was still gripping tightly said in a low and husky voice. — Penal battalion, private Levi Ackerman.

Erwin realised that he should have removed his arms and released him, his body hot and bony and firm to the touch. Instead he kept watching raindrops fall from Levi's black hair, the short wet fuzz of his undercut gleaming.

Levi extracted himself slowly from the embrace and turned to face Erwin, looked upwards at him squinting his light-coloured eyes.

— I started the fight.

He pointed to the laundry and then to the Northern wing of the headquarters main building.

— This is my territory and no one has any right to be here after the curfew.

Erwin sighed heavily. Sooner or later young dominant alphas started dividing the headquarters, the warehouses and the training grounds into zones and then fought like wild cats, defending their territory. Although it usually happened in the spring and not late in the autumn.

— Let's go, — Erwin took Levi by the elbow and started leading him to the barracks.

Without turning his head he ordered to the rest:

— Go to the hospital.

The rain was whipping their shoulders in hard, tights ropes.

— Where are we going?

— Your hands are all scraped. They need to be tended to, but in the hospital you would start another fight. We'll go to my personal quarters.

This made Levi stagger and halt at the porch, digging his boots hard into the steps.

— What? — asked Erwin tiredly, swiping wet strands of hair off his face.

Levi in all seriousness, unsmiling, told him some fascinating nonsense:

— It's improper for an alpha to enter an unmarried omega's room at night.

Erwin looked at him mindlessly for a couple of moments, all thoughts having escaped him — what an old-fashioned and honest alpha.

— I like you, — added Levi calmly. — I’m afraid I might lose control.

Erwin could have laughed right into the small self-confident alpha's face — would it be so hard to cope with him? But not a smile touched his lips. Erwin was looking down at Levi's gloomy pale face and he knew that this alpha was stronger than him, much stronger.

— Let's go, please.

Erwin took him by his hand, sticky with blood, and led him through the dark hallway of the Northern wing.

The kerosene lamp burned with soft yellow light. Inside the medical box bandage rolls glowed white, bottles with ointments glittered, tweezers and a scalpel shone faintly.

— Sit on the bed.

Erwin kneeled before Levi, looked up at him shortly and took him by the wrist. With a piece of gauze he washed the blood off his large raw knuckles and deeply scratched fingers. Between the index and the middle fingers ran a deep old scar.

— Uncle used to show how to fight with knives.

Erwin raised his eyes, furrowed his brows and said nothing. He carefully bandaged Levi's hands — the cuts still oozed blood, black in the dim light.

— You've got a good room. Spacious, — Levi uttered slowly. — You'd better stop going to the laundry, wash up here. You're a commander, you can give orders and have hot water fetched for you. And no one will be surprised. You got the right.

Erwin wanted to argue but failed. For the first time in his life he was affected by the calm voice of an alpha applying his dominance. Dropping his eyes to the floor, to Levi's rain wet boots, he breathed shortly in agreement:

— Yes.

He felt the scent of dry tea leaves, forest herbs, cold spring water. And of ozone — like before a storm.

— It seems to me as if we've met before, — Erwin still hadn't raised his gaze.

— We have, — Levi laid a bandaged palm on his shoulder. — About a month ago I was asked to drag the corpses from the hospital ward — many died the night after that outing. I went in and saw you.

He touched Erwin's cheek with calloused fingertips.

— You had a fever, your wounds were inflamed. I thought back then that, damn it, our world is full of shit if we let omegas go to the frontlines and return heavily wounded.

— I am fit for military service, — Erwin was very still, his heart beating erratically.

— You were whimpering from pain and no one cared, — Levi's spoke more harshly. — That's no way to treat omegas.

Erwin stirred up, looked him in the face.

— Who should be treated that way then?

— Scum.

Levi stood up from the slightly creaking bed, asked:

— You going to punish me for the fight?

— No, dismissed, — Erwin weakly waved to the door. He felt strange, hot, his thoughts were muddled and his chest tight — his heart beating with a deafeningly pronounced pulse.

He lay sleepless. The bed smelled faintly of tea leaves and blood. Erwin could hear his own rapid, shallow breathing, there wasn't enough air and his heart was clenching. Heated yearning and vague worry came over him in waves. Erwin couldn't calm down.

Indeed, Levi shouldn't have come into his room.

It was stupid, shameful and even somewhat unfair to be reacting this strongly to an alpha. He got over-excited like a young omega. His body was trembling, his hard cock erect — Erwin barely touched the head with his fingers and rasped a moan through his teeth. He knew nothing would save him. His wet palm, moving hurriedly and impatiently along the hot shaft, wouldn't help. Even if he licked his fingers, snaked his hand between the wide spread legs and fucked himself with them — no rest would come.

He was remembering Levi's light, icy eyes, his calm deep voice, and was thrusting his fingers deeper, even though it was tight, painful. He shouldn't have let that alpha go — should have pushed him onto the bed, pawed at his whole lean wiry body, touched his wide bony shoulders, his arms with dry bulging muscles. For some reason Erwin was sure that kissing Levi was like drinking fresh rainwater, trying his flavourless cool lips. Erwin didn't know what he wanted for sure. Undress Levi greedily and bang him obscenely and unnaturally, pervertedly, the way alphas shouldn't be fucked? Or lie beneath him with spread legs? And let Levi be persistent and even rough. Let him cover Erwin's mouth — with the firm hand scarred between the index and the middle fingers — and thrust to the hilt...

Erwin came soundlessly, he could be very quiet, but he imagined moaning under Levi.

He kept lying motionlessly for a long time, trying to catch his breath. Then he got up slowly and went to fetch a jug of water to wash up. He rubbed his burning face tiredly. There was only one lucid thought left in his head: he had to drink the herbal tea for omegas that suppressed desire for an alpha.

4.

Shadis drummed his fingers on the table, hunched over — his shoulders dropped — and barked a dry laugh:

— Erwin, I've read your report. You've developed an interesting expedition plan. An innovative plan! Yes, a new peculiar troops formation. But, omega, this all is just papers and schemes on maps.

— If the operative squads break up into smaller groups they can ride past titans unnoticed, — Erwin put his weight onto his hands upon the table top. — The monsters react to larger crowds — it's scientifically proven.

— Theories and intellectual rubbish. And I have people dying.

Shadis tossed him the report folder.

— Take it back. Either prove your words with action or don't bother me with your essays.

— Give me at least a few alphas in support, — Erwin said evenly, taking his report from the table. — We'll ride outside the Wall and get further on horses than your troops ever have. And we will return alive.

— Well and who will go with you? — Shadis spoke softer. — If you were an omega beauty with an aroma to make alphas dizzy they might've been ready to die for you. As it is even betas won't join you, they are too level-headed, and anyway they don't have the strength to cope with a single titan in a small group.

Erwin looked at Shadis' tired gaunt face, his eyes sunken like those of a corpse that had started decaying.

— I will find a volunteer. At least one.

Erwin descended down the stone steps into the cold damp basement and went to the lockup. A sleepy beta stood watch by the doors — at attention and with a gun in his hands as is the regulation for the guard.

Levi Ackerman had been imprisoned there for the whole day.

From what Erwin had learned during those past weeks, the small alpha visited the lockup for his fights more often than anyone else, having broken an officer's arm in the latest brawl. They said Levi was a former criminal from the underground city, that he had joined the Survey Corps to avoid the gallows.

— Officer, — the guard looked dully at Erwin. — You'd better keep away from that thug. He treats others like dirt, might insult or hit you, and you're an omega after all, you shouldn't be treated like that.

— It's alright. I can take care of myself.

Erwin took the rusty key from him, unlocked the heavy door with difficulty.

Levi was lying on his bunk, wrapped in his cloak, his back to Erwin, and looked thin and frail. He didn't even remotely resemble the strong and aggressive monster that attacked officers and broke their arms.

— Hello, — Levi said without turning, voice hoarse and muffled.

— Why did you fight with an officer?

Erwin stooped down onto one knee before the bunk, the stone floor felt cold as ice.

— And why is he such a fuc... — Levi corrected himself: — Why is he such a scoundrel?

Levi seemed to believe one should be careful with words in front of omegas.

— So what now, break all scoundrels' arms?

— Why not?

Levi stopped talking and fell into a quiet coughing fit, his broad angular shoulders twitching.

— You will get ill and die here, — Erwin told him somberly. — A meaningless death.

Turning around, Levi squinted, dark shadows under his eyes.

— What do you want?

— Will you ride with me outside the Wall tonight?

— Yes, — Levi breathed out quickly. He gathered himself and sat up in his bunk.

Erwin didn't hide his surprise — how could anyone agree to a dangerous expedition so fast and without even asking for details? He had already prepared himself to be persuasive, had readied solid arguments and a beautiful, inspiring speech. And now he was all but left staring silently at Levi.

— I haven't been outside the Wall yet. The latest expedition was back right after I joined the scouts, — Levi's voice wasn't as hoarse anymore, got stronger. — But — yes, I'll go.

— Because I'm an omega? — Erwin asked, frowning.

— Because you're not a bastard like everyone else. You smell clean.

5.

The moon was shining in the sky, translucent like clear river water. Under its white ghostly light the hills outside the Wall seemed flat and otherworldly. The world was endless, surprisingly void and silent — it was easy to hear the grass rustle under the horse hooves.

By the rim of a black forest Levi whispered:

— Would you have gone alone if I hadn't agreed to join?

His pale face had a weird expression as if he was trying hard to hide how amazed he was by the outside world. His unsmiling lips were twitching slightly as if a moment more and the corners will lift.

— Yes, — Erwin smiled in reply.

In the dusk of the fir wood they dismounted, very slowly. Leading their horses by the bridles, they walked around a sleeping seven meter titan sprawled across the clearing. Its huge ugly body lay with its limbs twisted in unnatural angles, its paws clawing lethargically at the soil. It snored in its sleep from time to time, exhaling hot vapour, its eyes moving under the lids.

Erwin himself felt as if asleep while threading past the giant bodies amidst moon shadows and black tree trunks. At night the monsters' misshapen mugs looked more like human faces, even though horribly distorted.

The trees were gradually getting sparser, a plain covered in starlit blue grass shone ahead. Resting its back against a fir trunk, a five meter titan slept, its head hanging limply upon its chest.

Erwin hadn't even noticed the movement — the five meter twitched in its slumber, swung its paw over the ground. The huge fingers crumpled a treetop above Erwin's head, needles and branches poured down with a cracking noise.

Erwin's crow black horse jumped away, looking wildly to the side, and neighed in fear.

— Shh, — Erwin reigned in the horse, patting its withers to calm down them both.

He turned around and saw that Levi had let go of his sorrel and readied his blades.

Levi watched the relaxed titan, then slowly walked closer to it. He stood by the huge neck with its protruding vertebrae but didn't strike. Gestured to Erwin: let's proceed but with caution.

In a ravine by the clearing they saw corpses of scouts, covered in needles and overgrown with moss. Faded cloaks, once green, with the wing symbol on them, bones, broken and sticking out, remains of skin. A sickening sweetish smell of decay and a damp breath of rot wafted from below.

— We couldn't retrieve the bodies. Left them here, — Erwin lead his horse by the edge of the ravine. — Our attack squad, the right wing.

— Not a bad grave, — Levi said indifferently. — Better rot outside the Wall, in the woods, than at the cemetery.

— One can see the sunrise from here.

A thin green line had already cut through the horizon, it was getting lighter.

Before the dawn, thick whitish fog embraced the hills, the moon faded. The horses raced at a gallop, followed by black storm clouds.

— We'll take shelter in an old fortress during the day, — Erwin held his black horse, aligned with Levi's sorrel.

— And after that?

— We'll chart our route and will return inside the Wall at night.

Levi looked at him sideways and asked quietly:

— And what if we don't return and go further?

— In thirty hours we'll hit the sea in the north.

They continued their ride in silence. Before them a dark stone fortress was emerging with its tower crumbled and fallen off in places.

The wind tore at their cloaks, the first cold drops of a coming rainstorm started falling.

A faint thunder reached them from the west.

The flame from the fireplace cast its glow across the walls of the huge empty hall in the dungeon of the abandoned fortress. Their soaked cloaks were drying by the fire, a fine white vapour rising above them. Erwin changed into clean clothes and was glancing at Levi taking his shirt off and washing his face with measured handfuls of rainwater from a barrel. A neat person — like Erwin himself.

Erwin poured his herbs into the boiling pot. Linden blossom, tutsan, chamomile — the dungeon seemed to turn into an apothecary or a hut of a witch that provides omegas with abortions for a few coppers. Boiling water was making the herbs smell stronger — of bitter honey, then of swamp moss, then of fresh stems wet from rain.

— Omega potion? — Levi asked, spreading dried bread and apple slices over a piece of wax paper.

Erwin added a pinch of calendula and answered with a curt, almost queasy "yes".

Levi moved closer, leaned in and smelled his neck — it was inappropriate and tactless for an alpha.

— Sterilised?

Levi's warm breath tickled.

Erwin limited his reply with another impersonal "yes", looking tensely into the flames.

— Why do you need the herbs then?

Levi moved again, trying to look into Erwin's eyes. His strong, unexpectedly heavy and hot hands rested on Erwin's shoulders.

— Er-rwin.

— Don't torture me with your questions, — Erwin looked wistfully into his face, right into wild eyes dark with dilated pupils. — You know.

— Have you ever been with alphas? — Levi carefully took a fir needle out of his hair.

Erwin felt a painful pang in his chest, as if the maneuver gear had hooked into his heart and kept pulling, pulling between his ribs drearily, agonizingly.

— Only with betas. And once with an omega.

— A virgin, then.

Levi touched his scentless dry lips to Erwin's, stroked gently with the top of his tongue, penetrating, deepening the kiss. Erwin stilled and didn't kiss back, frozen. Not immediately but he did embrace Levi, feeling the distinct shoulder blades move under his palms. Solid, as if of stone, and angular Levi pressed into him, allowed him a gulp of air and then kissed again impatiently. He smelled of fresh mint rubbed between fingers, unripe wild strawberries and strong black tea.

— I like your nipples, Erwin, — Levi breathed out with a stagger. — Large.

He stroked Erwin's chest with a rough hot palm, fondling through the shirt. Wriggling in the embrace he climbed into Erwin's lap, vibrating from arousal, his cock hard and erect.

Erwin felt uneasy — to the point of tremor and light dizziness — he had forgotten how big alphas' dicks could be, much bigger than betas'.

— If you want, — Levi was whispering hotly into Erwin's lips, — one day I will lie under you, you can take me. I know you're a pervert. Come on... I don't mind...

Erwin grasped his meaning — slowly, as if in a dream, he slid his hand along the flexible back, covered the small ass with his palm.

— But first I would fuck you, Erwin, — Levi looked into his eyes, tightly gripping his chin with fingers, short nails digging in slightly. — You will be my omega. Don't protest, I won't take a no.

Erwin couldn't reply — Levi leaned to his lips briefly, as if swallowing his next words:

— Now is not the time, but when we are back, I will come to your room.

Levi stopped speaking and only nestled tighter, undid his pants and was rubbing with his whole body, heated and trembling — surprisingly sensual for an alpha. He moaned hoarsely, thrusted his hips once more and twitched in Erwin's arms, gasped a muttered curse and came. His breathing hastened, his heart was hammering — Erwin could feel the skipping line of his pulse. Levi pressed his kiss warmed lips, hot as embers, to his neck and bit down wetly and painfully, catching skin between the teeth, — marking him. A hot shudder, like a thin needle piercing in fast, rapid stitches, ripped through Erwin. He whined, feeling the heat from the bite spread through his whole body like venom in his bloodstream, and came short and sharp.

They sat leaning their backs to the cool wall, watched the fire and said nothing — disquieted and disheveled. Their breathing, like the sound of a sea, washed in waves over the dungeon.

— Forgive me.

— For what? — Erwin put his palm onto the pleasantly stinging bite.

Levi paused to think, as if he couldn't express his meaning, and finally spoke:

— You came in your pants because of me. I'm sorry. I...

Obviously, he was trying to find a decent word, but gave up and only patted Erwin on his neck carefully, like he did with his sorrel.

— Does it hurt?

— Yes, — Erwin smiled to him.

They slept in turns. Erwin took the first one. As soon as he drank the hot herb tea, his lids got heavy, his body limp, as if not his own. He fell into darkness immediately. Woke up on his own — Levi didn't wake him, he was sitting by the fire and warming his hands. Erwin's head was splitting, he rose slowly and sat.

— Sleep some more, — Levi looked at him intently, frowning.

Erwin wanted to shake his head but thought better of it — he felt as if his brain was a mug full of liquid ready to spill over. He had taken too much of the strong herb tea.

— I'm scared, — Erwin said hoarsely, in a strange voice, and rubbed his burning face with his hands.

Levi silently handed him a canteen full of clear cold water.

— I'm scared the heat will start, — Erwin added quietly after taking a gulp. He wanted to shut up but the words were ripping out of him, like guts from a torn belly of a titan — or like flowers from their buds. He talked about how inappropriate and unneeded it was in this world and in this time to be an omega — heats, alphas, perhaps a pregnancy, too? To give birth to children so that the giants can gobble them up the next day? Cruel and stupid.

Levi listened to his unsteady thought stream without interrupting, his face calm and slightly distant. He only said:

— Don't be scared of anything.

It rained so hard that night that it seemed the air turned into cold lake water. Through the dense veil of rain the forest edge was barely seen. Belly deep in thick wet grass, the horses were climbing the hill, breathing heavily and snorting.

— Is it the right direction? — Levi asked, shouting over the rain. His cloak was completely wet, black strands of hair clinged to his cheekbones.

— I don't know.

Usually Erwin could navigate by stars or by landmarks from the maps. But at the moment the sky was shrouded by heavy rain clouds. And the maps were old and often lied. Erwin remembered the path they had travelled by the previous night, but right then, with such visibility that one could hardly make out anything further than two feet away, he started to doubt. He looked at the compass, shielding it from the drops with his cloak. The compass hand was spinning and shuddering. It was either the thunder, its flashes colouring the east, or the ore in the nearby hills — loadstone.

— Let's get back and wait out a day until it gets clearer? — Levi held back his sorrel.

— I don't know, — Erwin repeated absently. He had ultimately understood why omegas were so reluctantly admitted in the survey corps, and especially when it came to expeditions. His brain felt like gears turning idly. He was trying to think but felt suspended in a haze raised in his conscience by the mind-numbing healing herbs.

— I’m going to count to ten, — Levi yelled into his ear over the swishing rain. — If you don't get yourself together, I'll slap you in the face, I swear.

— But...

— Give the order, — Levi grabbed his shoulder, digging in his fingers painfully.

— To the southwest, — Erwin gestured in an approximate direction.

Lightning flashed. A heavy roll of thunder tumbled through the sky.

— We can't ride further, — Erwin dismounted and ducked under the fir branches shaken by the hitting dense strings of rain.

Between a steep stony cliff and a fast river, black in the night shadows, lay stretched a fifteen meter titan. Its bulk, emitting yellowish vapour, was blocking the road. The huge legs were buried deep in the water and the ugly head was tucked face-first into the cliff rocks.

— No time to go around, the dawn will catch us, — Levi jumped off his horse and readied the blades.

He kicked off the sodden muddy ground, his maneuver gear cables hissed, their hooks dug into the tree trunks. The mechanisms threw Levi amazingly high into the dark rainy sky, as if he was weightless, ethereal. Levi hovered for a moment in the air, changed his grip on the blade hilts, swirled and, spinning faster and faster, dropped down. The blades cut off the fir top with a crack, drew sparks from stones by the cliff and dug into the titan's neck. The hit wasn't precise — Erwin noted that Levi's light weight had got him swayed a bit to the side by the wind, the trajectory had been broken.

There was a lot of blood, it hissed and bubbled like a poisonous potion, black and viscous. Levi dug his boots into the monster's head, pulled his blades out of the flesh, made a short swing and slashed sharply again. The titan jerked convulsively, opened one of its eyes, bulged it, staring mindlessly at Erwin.

— We can't budge it but it cuts easily, — Levi said, rain washing blood from his face. — We'll cut through the neck so that the horses can pass.

Erwin tied the horses to the tree and took out his blades.

The dawn was catching up with them, to their left a cold pink glow was crawling over the sky. The rain had stopped, just rare drops fell off the branches in the fog. The horses galloped in a cloud of water dust, heavily, pounding their hooves into the soggy ground tiredly.

Ahead of them they could see the Wall behind the hills. And scattered along their path to it — motionless bodies of sleeping titans.

— Will we make it? — Erwin was looking at the pink glow atop the treetops. It was getting lighter.

Levi didn't reply. He let go of the reins with one hand and checked the gear clamps, slid his palm over spare gas tanks strapped to the saddle.

The light was pouring over the valley, the sun was rising higher and higher, shadows started appearing.

The titans began to stir. First slowly, barely noticeably, then more vigorously. The largest ones started twitching, their paws scraping. The silence filled with quickened breathing, steam poured out of their maws. Then the smaller ones split their eyelids, staring dumbly into the dawning sky.

They had to ride more to the left, over a hill, to avoid a stirring ten meter beast.

Erwin thought that if no deviant type appeared... He didn't have a chance to finish that thought. Right from behind the hill a deviant titan jumped out, blocking the sky, shivering and swinging its crooked arms around. The totally unpredictable huge thing was moving jerkily, in short chaotic dashes. It tossed itself first to the hilltop, then to the valley, then back again, trampling bushes with its feet and wailing.

Erwin pulled out his blades and at the same time felt a burst of wet wind — Levi on his sorrel had sprinted by him swiftly, hitting him with the bottom of his wet cloak. And in a moment Erwin had to jerk his reins abruptly, leading his horse to the side — streams of blood were flowing from above, the titan's dead carcass tumbled heavily to the hill in clouds of yellow steam.

Looking at Levi, bloodstained and disheveled, picking out the hooks stuck in the beast's neck with a blade, Erwin thought that he had never seen anyone deadlier and more beautiful than him.

— We'll get to the Wall, — Levi growled hoarsely. — Even if I have to shred them all to pieces.

6.

The hospital ward smelled of spirits and camphor.

Erwin sat by the bunk, hunched. His thoughts and his heart were empty and surprisingly quiet. Erwin didn't look into Levi's face, only at his hand lying atop the greyish washed out sheets. Two fingers were broken, the scar between the middle and the index ones hid behind layers of bloodied gauze. Levi got off easy — the luck failed him only once: right at the gates of the Wall he ran out of gas. As he flew, a titan brushed him with its paw. Levi regrouped in the air, managed to somewhat cushion the fall, but still hit the ground hard and unfortunate. Erwin heard — or maybe imagined he heard — the dry crunch of breaking bones. Fingers would’ve been no big deal, but the ribs had cracked too.

Erwin listened to sleeping Levi's quiet staggering breathing — a shallow short inhale, a long pause, a hoarse exhale.

— I was scared for you, — Erwin whispered with his lips alone. But in truth it was not the fear, but a strange feeling as if his whole body froze, like those insects stuck in tar. The thoughts ceased, Erwin stopped existing. He returned to his senses only after the Wall gates had closed behind his back and he was carrying Levi to the hospital.

Shadis squinted his tired eyes at the map with the new route to the old fortress.

— He's a powerful battle unit — this Levi Ackerman of yours. We'll put him in the forefront for the next expedition. I hope Levi will follow orders — I know the crook, if anything sits wrong with him he gets stubborn and hostile, no handling him.

Erwin looked calmly into Shadis' face, wrinkled like old oak bark, and kept silent. It was his Levi, damn them. His own Levi and no one except Erwin could give him orders. It was his, Erwin's, alpha.

Shadis somewhat shrank under Erwin's gaze and said hurriedly, as if the words were bitter, foul to the taste:

— Erwin, a little birdie told me you'd developed a nice sweet omega scent. I don't sense it myself. But you know well enough that's no good, you'd better get sterilised once more.

He sniffed deeply, leaning closer to Erwin, shook his head and hemmed:

— No scent. Grass and tea. I'd say you smell of an alpha.

— I won't go through the repeat sterilisation, — Erwin's voice was even and confident.

He didn't add anything more, not one single argument, but Shadis shrank even deeper into his chair, as if the air in the room got denser and weighed on him like a stone plate.

It was as if Levi had given Erwin all of himself, his scent and his alpha domination. He, Levi, was lying somewhere out there, in the hospital, but Erwin felt him somewhere very near — with every heartbeat.

Erwin pointed to the map.

— The right wing will go here.

7.

In the moon’s shadow Levi's eyes looked black — wild, with dilated pupils. His pale face, gaunt after the hospital, was alarmed and a bit sad, dark strands of hair, wet from bathing, clung to his cheekbones. It seemed each movement hurt Levi slightly, his ribs were still bound by bandages, his chest didn't rise high on the inhale, air filled his lungs reluctantly. Levi was well-built — dry muscles moving under the pale skin without a single birthmark. The cold moonlight poured over his wide bony shoulders, deep shadows lying by his sharp clavicles.

— You smell good — soap, chamomile, — Levi bent down to Erwin's neck as he lay on his back, stroked his chest with calloused, hard palms. Pressed his lips ticklishly right under his ear and whispered "clean" — Erwin more felt it with the warm breath than heard. He had been thinking that for their first time Levi would fuck him impatiently, roughly, like an animal, would make him bury his face in the sheets and thrust into him to the hilt. But Levi was lingering — awkward and trembling, as if for him Erwin was a piece of ice about to melt in his hand.

Erwin spread his legs widely. Levi's fingers were cold from the healing salve — carefully penetrating and stretching the tight ass.

— You're so... — Levi whispered huskily and choked for a moment, swallowing his next word. His hand lay on Erwin's large hardening cock, tightened around it tentatively and started pumping it somewhat shyly, cautiously.

— You're being gentle.

— Yes, — Levi replied curtly and looked him in the eyes, tilting his head to the side, squinting. He seemed to be looking for something in Erwin's face, some faint hint, permission.

— Let go.

Erwin slowly slipped off his fingers, turned over, slid his nose along the warm sheets, leaned on his elbows and arched his back pliantly, offering himself. He had acquired Levi's rapid tremor, sparkly like lightning in the night. He inhaled greedily, feeling the faint but intoxicating scent of Levi pressed behind him. The aroma had changed slightly — a light breeze of autumn rain, wet fir needles and crushed ice in a glass of wine.

— Spread your knees wider, Erwin, — Levi pushed hard between his shoulder blades with a hand, making him arch deeper. The big head of his cock was sliding in with some difficulty, and Erwin kept thinking: it won't fit in, no, it won't. He shut his eyes and pressed his hot forehead into the bed, when Levi thrusted deeper, hard and ruthless, and dug his fingers into Erwin's hip to stop him from sliding off. Erwin heard Levi's hoarse voice but couldn't make out the words, only his tone — soft and calming. Under his closed eyelids white stars were swimming, his heart was pounding as though a restless bird was hitting his ribcage with its wings, inhales and exhales hitching with sobs. Erwin didn't realise at first whose strangled moans he heard over the rhythmic creaking of the bed. He whimpered, thrusting back onto the hot, tightly-seated cock, taking it all in, and moaned again, loudly, unrestrained. His legs were shaking, his knees were sliding apart — Levi hugged him tightly around his stomach, holding him with surprising ease, banging him hard and fast. Levi rasped something unintelligible and came inside, roughly thrusting all the way in. Erwin caught his thrill and shivered with him, leaping into a short and shuddering orgasm. So pleasant he could scream. But inside his soul Erwin felt something strange, almost painful, like he was a cup thrown harshly against the stone floor and it shattered with a loud clang. He sank tiredly onto the crumpled, soiled sheets and now felt with his whole body how loud and fast Levi's heartbeat was as he embraced him from behind. Levi lay upon him, his cheek between Erwin's sweaty shoulder-blades. He was pleasantly heavy and his breath fell in warm steam onto his heated skin.

Time froze. A cozy darkness was covering Erwin wave after wave, and in this darkness the heart of his alpha, Levi, was beating steadily like clockwork. The broken cup was slowly coming back together from the shards and became whole, the clock hands moved, time went on. Everything fell into place and continued the way it should go.

For the first time in his life all was right.

— We have imprinted, — Levi said quietly, rolling off and laying by Erwin’s side, kissing him briefly into his open lips. — You are my omega now. Forever.

Erwin wanted to reply but couldn't, his chest felt tight, the words didn't come out.

— The next time I'll lie beneath you, — Levi whispered in his ear. — You won't refuse?

Erwin turned to him and clumsily grasped him in a tight hug, so hard it seemed his bones might crack. He wanted to hold this moment forever, hold Levi — alive and healthy, not bound by the dead stiffness, not maimed by titans.

Erwin nuzzled his prickly trimmed temple and was thinking of a small grave — no need for a big pit to bury his short Levi.

— Thinking about death?

— Yes, — Erwin replied simply.

— Me too.

— I'm scared, — Erwin knew it sounded pathetic.

— I’ll do everything you tell me to, Erwin, — Levi pulled back and looked him in the eyes. — But promise me that one day we'll go beyond the Wall and we'll continue riding on and on until we hit the edge of this damn land — the northern sea.

— What are we going to do in the north? — Erwin smiled. — Start fishing? Built a house? I'll stop taking the herbs and will want you madly and fuck you all day long?

— Yes, — Levi replied in all seriousness, in the morning light his eyes looked like two pieces of clear ice with dark points of pupils in them.


End file.
